Page:Commentary on the Revelation of St. John (Bruce).djvu/5



No part of the Sacred Scripture has been the subject of such deep and anxious study as the Book of Revelation, and none has received so many and such various interpretations. This may be accounted for by the nature of the book itself. At once prophetic and enigmatic, it gives the greatest stimulus to human curiosity, and affords the widest scope for human ingenuity. The variety and uncertainty of the expositions it has received arise from one cause : John has been to Christians what Moses was to the J ews, a veiled prophet. “ Moses put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished : but their minds were blinded : for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament ; which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart ” (2 Cor. iii. 13-15). That which was abolished, to the end of which the children of Israel could not steadfastly look, was the Israelitish dispensation. That which is abolished, to the end of which Christians cannot look, is the Christian dispensation. By the Christian dispensation we do not of course mean Christianity. This will never end, but will continue to increase in strength and glory from generation to generation ; but the first dispensation of the church passes away, to be succeeded by another and a bettor. As the Israelitish dispensation was abolished by the First Coming of Christ, the Christian dispensation is abolished by His Second Coming. Here is the grand mistake of Christians and of Christian commentators : they have been looking for the Coming of the Lord as the signal for the destruc- tion of the world. The end of the age (alwv) which our Lord’s disciples inquired after, and which He encouraged them to expect, has been converted by their successors into the end of the world. True, the Lord’s description of the end of the age or dispensation, and of His Second Coming, might lead the mere literalist to understand Him to predict the end of the material world. The sun is to be darkened, the moon is not to give her light, and the stars are to fall from heaven; and heaven and eartli themselves are to pass away. But how is